LOW HEMATOCRIT AND HEMOGLOBIN WITH PNEUMONIA AND COPD SERIES
The heme portion is synthesized in a series of steps which occur in the mitochondria and the cytosol of the immature red blood cell, while the globin protein portions of the molecule are synthesized by ribosomes in the cytosol. Hemoglobin (Hb) is synthesized in a complex series of steps. These diseases, which also often produce anemia, are called thalassemias.
A (mostly) separate set of diseases involves underproduction of normal and sometimes abnormal hemoglobins, through problems and mutations in globin gene regulation. These mutations are formally recognized as hemoglobin variants rather than diseases. However, not all such globin-gene mutations result in illness. Historically in human medicine, sickle-cell disease was the first disease to be understood in its mechanism of dysfunction, completely down to the molecular level. Mutations in the genes for the hemoglobin protein in humans result in a group of hereditary diseases termed the hemoglobinopathies, the best known of which is sickle-cell disease. In humans, each heme group is able to bind one oxygen molecule, and thus, one hemoglobin molecule can bind four oxygen molecules. The most common type of hemoglobin in mammals contains four such subunits, each with one heme group. The name hemoglobin is the concatenation of heme and globin, reflecting the fact that each subunit of hemoglobin is a globular protein with an embedded heme (or haem) group each heme group contains an iron atom, and this is responsible for the binding of oxygen through ion-induced dipole forces. Hemoglobin also has a variety of other gas-transport and effect-modulation duties, which vary from species to species, and may be quite diverse in invertebrates. Hemoglobin transports oxygen from the lungs or gills to the rest of the body, such as to the muscles, where it releases its load of oxygen. In mammals the protein makes up about 97% of the red cell’s dry content, and around 35% of the total content (including water).
Hemoglobin, also spelled haemoglobin and abbreviated Hb, is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein in the red blood cells of the blood in vertebrates and other animals.